Elder Village Euless can put the needs of their residents first thanks to Deputy

Texas, USA

service

Deputy Premium

At a glance

Saved approximately 80 hours of work each month while providing employees with more flexibility

Cost savings of $11,000 – $13,000 each year by eliminating the “overlap time” between shifts alone

Freedom and opportunity to completely put the needs of their residents first

The Story

Elder Village Euless, LLC, a Texas state-licensed assisted living facility, opened its doors to provide premium-level elder care in 2007. The real inspiration, however, came in December 2004, when Kathy Lois Jones, the owner of Elder Village, was challenged with finding proper care for her father after he suffered a stroke.

“After exhaustive research, I quickly concluded that rather than a large assisted living facility, a private residential care home was the best option for him,” said Kathy. “After finding him a home, I realized my personal experience had also sparked a new found passion in my life, and I decided to create my own care home.”

Today, Elder Village Euless, LLC. provides personalized home care to residents in an intimate village of residential duplexes in Euless, Texas. The location is named “Jack’s Place” after Kathy’s father.

Today, Elder Village Euless, LLC. provides personalized home care to residents in an intimate village of residential duplexes in Euless, Texas. The location is named "Jack's Place" after Kathy's father.

I felt like all I was doing was managing my employee's schedules. It’s important to me that my caregivers are able to have a good work-life balance, but it got to the point where I was spending 20 hours a week on scheduling and changing the schedule up to eight times a day!

The Challenge

When Kathy opened Elder Village, she wanted to provide residents the opportunity to transfer from their home without losing the comforts of what they’re accustomed to.

Unfortunately, Kathy realized her time was being eaten up by the daily admin tasks of operating her own business. To help, she invested in various forms of technology to streamline processes, including an online time clock solution and QuickBooks for payroll.

The problem? The solutions did not integrate and did not solve all of her business pain points like inefficient scheduling and unorganized team communication. She needed more technology, but adding another solution was not ideal.

“So much of the healthcare industry today is focused around documentation and compliance. For instance, we have an EHR to document medicine and health issues,” said Kathy. “The last thing I wanted was to force my staff and myself to learn a different platform for each business issue. I desperately needed one all-inclusive solution.”

Before utilizing Deputy, Kathy manually compiled and physically printed the schedule for her employees. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before an employee required a schedule change, forcing Kathy to update and reprint the schedule. And then, it would happen again… and again.

“I felt like all I was doing was managing my employee’s schedules,” said Kathy. “It’s important to me that my caregivers are able to have a good work-life balance, but it got to the point where I was spending 20 hours a week on scheduling and changing the schedule up to eight times a day!”

The Solution

“The minute I saw Deputy, it was like a breath of fresh air,” said Kathy. “Not only did it solve my scheduling issues, but it was also a time clock, integrated with my payroll provider, and offered the ability to seamlessly communicate with my team 24/7.”

The decision was a no-brainer. In December 2015, Elder Village implemented Deputy and hasn’t looked back.

Soon after implementing Deputy, scheduling headaches were behind her. Not only did it relieve her workload, but it also empowered Kathy’s employees more than ever before.

“Now, I can set the schedule almost instantly on a weekly or monthly basis straight from my smartphone. And my employees finally have the power to assist with creating their own schedules. They can add in their availability, request days off, and more. They absolutely love it.” said Kathy.

With Deputy, the Elder Village team communicates seamlessly with one another 24/7 – something that is invaluable in the healthcare and caregiving industry.

For instance, Elder Village has a part-time nurse practitioner on staff. Before Deputy, Kathy and her caregivers had to constantly call her to ask questions. She also felt disconnected from patients until she arrived for work. Because of Deputy, she is now able to stay in the loop and help provide better patient care by constantly communicating through Deputy’s Newsfeed.

“When you are caring for elderly people, time is of the essence,” said Kathy. “Our caregivers can instantly communicate with our nurse directly via Deputy and she can provide feedback, like telling them to go ahead and call the doctor within seconds.”

In addition, the solution enables better and easier communication for caregivers in between shifts. For example, prior to Deputy, caregiver shifts were required to overlap in order to provide updates to the incoming staff.

“At the end of a long shift, all my caregivers wanted to do was head home,” said Kathy. “Instead, they had to stay an hour longer to get the new caregiver up to speed. It was exhausting for them and not cost-effective for me.”

Now, caregivers can instantly provide their updates in Deputy’s Newsfeed feature and the new shift can read them directly upon arrival – eliminating the need for any overlap. This, in turn, creates a better culture for caregivers and saves Kathy approximately $30-$36 a day or $11,000 – $13,000 each year.

Again, due to the nature of the caregiving industry, staff accountability is essential. The Elder Village team utilizes Deputy in various ways to ensure accountability, including Newsfeed to communicate directly with another staff member who may be late, and the Tasking feature to guarantee certain individuals complete specific tasks. In addition, the Journaling feature helps to keep track of employee performance“.

“Deputy not only allows me to handle any issues that may arise right away, but it also permits my team to communicate and solve smaller problems on their own, without having to go through me,” said Kathy. “I don’t want to be at the home all the time, and with Deputy, I don’t have to be. Deputy allows me to have a life outside of work while also making my work life easier than it has ever been.”

THE RESULTS

Since implementing Deputy, both Kathy and her team feel more empowered and grateful than ever before. Ultimately, Deputy provides Elder Village with:

Quick, efficient scheduling, saving Kathy approximately 80 hours of work each month and providing employees with more flexibility.

Enhanced team morale through Deputy’s mobile capabilities and Newsfeed communication features that keeps everyone in the loop with one another.

Cost savings of $11,000 – $13,000 each year by eliminating the “overlap time” between shifts alone.

Freedom and opportunity to completely put the needs of their residents first.

“I believe in technology like Deputy, because when a single solution makes the daily grind of running a business more transparent and easier, it gives you more energy and time to focus on the aspects of business that you have a passion for. For me, that’s loving and caring for people.”

“Deputy has truly empowered both me and my employees. We’re all able to focus our attention back on what’s most important – our residents – while my employees are also able to feel more invested in their contributions to our business than ever before.”